Carlos got off the platform. Feeling incredibly tired. Yesterday had been busy. Catching the proper Pokemon for the match, getting them set up.
Discussing with Surge how he wanted to train those 3 new Pokemon himself, without the use of digit balls. Talking to Loki about how he wanted to do his own testing in regard’s to pokeballs.
Getting his hands on v1 balls. Surge had indulged him the money, money was rolling in.
Then Arriving in Blackthorne on the transportation Pad. Corey pounced him the moment she could, she had come to greet him. She was wearing a coat, over her sexy dress and had her hair colored blond again.
She took him to a nearby motel, obviously they couldn’t keep their hands to themselves but it surprised him how much they talked, they talked a lot. Random things, the words just came out. It wasn’t even about anything in particular.
Corey confirmed parts of Carlos suspicions but didn’t talk more about than she felt she could. Carlos didn’t care, as long as they stayed out of his and Corey’s way, which Corey assured him off repeatedly, the Joy clan could have their secrets.
He took a deep breath. Life was way too good for him. He slammed his fist into a tree. Scaring a few kids close by. He smirked.
”Gotta knock on wood.”
The next month, the days seemed to blur as he tested the differences of Pokeballs. Trained his own team. And spend every second he could with Corey.
The clash with the elder he never met, had brought them a lot closer. She had begun teaching him how to look past her mask. Something no Joy did lightly. It spoke of a trust that Carlos felt he didn’t deserve. His natural response was to do his best to live up to it.
He felt he was the kind of guy that would scoff whenever people said sappy things like: a couple was made for each other but his experience with Corey was turning him into a believer.
His own team was Doing great. Kong was close to his evolution and had grown exponentially. He was already larger than other Mankey of his level. Also learning Bulk up through learning sword dance and swagger and combining it. Which didn’t take him long. He was already working on combining it with Curling Fury. Carlos had also taught Kong Safeguard. A move that blocked moves such as taunt or baby doll eyes. He planned on teaching it to everyone on his team.
Dianne and Gawain were close behind. Gawain had made a bit of a breakthrough with his Fire TE. His growth had definitely helped and he no longer needed the Fire stone. Carlos wore it now as a reminder of how far they had come.
They had a great party when Gawain did great in a fight against Gwen, using one ice move after the next.
Gwen and Loki had made both tremendous progress. Gwen grew like it was nobody’s business weighing close to 200 pounds. She was as happy and jolly as ever, the bright white light, insufferably bubbly and positive member of the team. Everyone on the team jumped in to safeguard her adorable innocence, all of this reflected in her fighting style. If you could call it that.
Gwen had turned out to be a bit of a prodigy when it came to coming up with her own moves. Dianne the official big sister, secretly the doting maternal one. Had helped her Gwen with her fighting style.
Dance off: (Cardinal)
Both you and your Opponent are locked in a dance for 1 second. Both gain, 20% defense and reflex. For 2/4 seconds.
Removes status effects and stat debuffs
Cost: 30% TE. Intensity 3. Adv
Hug!
as long as Dance off still lingers A hug can be initiated. Both combatants will charge into each other dealing base defense stat as damage. Reflex is ignored for both and this move cannot crit. The hug lasts for 1 second. You can initiate a hug without Dance off.
cost:10% TE. Intense 1. Adv.
Cuddle(normal):
Variation on Body slam. As long as hug is in effect. you slam down to properly hug the opponent. Deal base Defense as damage again. This move does not crit but has double chance to flinch
cost: 10% TE. Intense 1. Adv
Carlos was faced with one of the greatest challenges yet, Keeping a straight face and not buckle from laughter, when his opponents had to watch dumbfounded as theirPokemon gleefully hugged Gwen, who then promptly got squashed by a heavy Cetoddle, she was huge for her Level.
The funniest thing was that Defiance didn’t work against it at all. In fact, it seemed to be weak against it. The super serious Kong simply couldn’t resist cuddling. Which he wasn’t living down very well.
The only one who didn’t fall for the Dance off, was Loki. Inner focus seemed to protect the regal Pawniard.
Corey had made him promise he would attempt contests with Gwen. Carlos wasn’t sure his reputation could handle the hit. He knew he would cave at some point. Gwen loved sparkly stuff or making it sparkly with Ice. Contests, still in their infancy, were a foregone conclusion for Gwen.
Loki had made the biggest change as far as behavior, oh he still loved to prank but he felt at ease, not just with the team and Carlos but with himself. To his own aggravation he had only Created 1 move on his own but it was an amazing move.
Kings defense, it was an expert move. He really wanted to lean into his steel typing but sadly his meagre atk stat forced him to rely mostly on foul play. Carlos was determined to make it work. Loki had worked mostly on his basics and to his own surprise was chaining his moves like nobody’s business. Gawain and him had a bit of a friendly shit talking rivalry going on as well. Which was funny. He expected it from Kong and Loki. But those two together brought out the prankster in Kong.
Everyone had made immense strides. Carlos himself, his defensive footwork and dash were replaced by bulk up and Nasty plot. Bulk up was freaky. It actually made him gain an inch in height and his veins popped in a way that made Corey scream when she saw it for the first time, she screamed in the worst way possible, she had never screamed in her life. Nasty plot wasn’t any better, he looked monstrous.
He was slowly turning into a very weird type of pokemon. Although he did feel like he was hitting a certain limit in regards to how many moves he had.
He grumbled as he looked around, no wood to smash. Perhaps he needed a sudowoodo as his 6th member, “nah that poor sudowudoo would get traumatized.” He thought, thinking on the poor imaginary 6th member.
He was standing in a sold out arena. Surge had gone all out, he had to hold back laughter at the disclaimer on the screens with adds about the length of the match, Carlos had build up some notoriety on finishing matches without much flair.
Ultra high speed Cameras were set up, so people could watch the action up close on big screens from all sorts of angles so you wouldn’t miss a thing.
Carlos was amazed at how much importance was placed on this match. The way it had been advertised was hilarious as well: The whisperer, discovering the talent of a Prodigal new dragon trainer, said dragon trainer wanting nothing more than to test his metal.
Quite a few prominent figures had shown up. Oak, Koga, who Carlos really wanted to say hi to. Lance, who he couldn’t figure out if he should punch or thank.
But above all, the one and only, Sakaki Giovanni. The hidden Donn of this region.
Carlos had done quite a bit of digging in regards to Pokeballs and his paranoia got dialed up to eleven when he found out the Giovanni family, was the dominant shareholder of Silph and Co. The company that evolved and grew around the v1 Pokeball. Any and all designs from Pokeballs accross the globe, came from Silph and Co.
Carlos had rightfully so, put a solid tin foil hat on and dived into the rabbit hole of conspiracies and tried to piece it all together. He had to hand it to the Giovanni’s, there was no evidence of them ever involved in something shady.
What was even weirder, was that the conspiracy theorists, who happily theorized on anyone, even Samuel Oak, who was beyond reproach, never took a shot at the Giovanni Family. No one seemed interested in theorizing about the war hero.
To A doubtful Carlos, the circumstantial evidence was pretty obvious. The Giovanni’s had a major financial investment in anything that was important. They had immense control over everything that was going on. He was unofficially considered the regional champion. But he had no interest in that title, which only added to his magnanimity.
Carlos kept his mouth wisely shut and smiled. Corey had listened but brushed it off, which was odd, Surge however had gotten downright hostile.
Carlos spent quite a bit of time that week to get back in Surge’s good graces. In hindsight, Surge was the wrong person to bring this to.
By his own admission, Surge, although effective, had been downright reckless in the war. Giovanni had saved his life on numerous occasions. Surge looked up to the man who always had his back when it mattered, something about a scandal in Surge’s past with a missing person came up in conversation. Giovanni had been one of the few who believed Surge from the get go.
The respect and awe Giovanni enjoyed was fully earned and not something he could cut through with a few random accusations.
He put it out of his mind, the team rocket he knew from the anime, was practically in its infancy. So it could wait for now. Although he was worried. He vaguely remembered that the team rocket from the manga was an actual threat.
He looked at Corey who was sitting together with Surge and Miya, Miya who somehow managed to wrap Surge around her dainty little finger with ease. It seemed Surge had finally found his match and easily surrendered. Carlos was happy for the man whom he had come to respect, even if he had become twice as insufferable because of it.
He looked at his new gym team. They were ready. He didn’t know if they would win but they would put up a hell of a fight. He gave Surge in the stance a shit eating grin.
Galvanize: combines electric and normal TE. May turn normal moves into electric moves. All electric moves gain 20% extra speed.
Slacken(Normal)
removes flinch from overuse or taking damage. Take 25% max HP recoil damage.
Cost: 10%TE. intense 0. advanced
Aerial Ace(Cardinal)
Attack with blinding speed by conjuring winds of fury. Instantly gain full effect of Flying trait. Gain 100% speed. For 1 second
Taunt.(Cardinal)
Drop defense by 50% and force physical attacks for 1 second.
Drill Peck
create centrifugal force around your beak. Causing the force to bypass some of your opponent’s Defense.
atk 200% ignore 25% of defense.
cost: TE1, intense 2, advanced.
Wild Charge
Charge and attack recklessly. Take 25% recoil damage
200% atk, ignore 25% of defense, double chance to flinch and add 2 static charges.
Bolt Beak
Deal double damage whenever you attack a paralyzed, frozen or flinched opponent.
100% atk.
cost 10% TE, intense 1, basic.
Double Shock(electric)
Deliver 2 shocking blows.
2x 100% atk, each hit applies 3 static.
Dynamo: circular movements or running will create an electric charge. You can hold 3 charges. Each electric charge adds 20% damage to all electric moves. Without a charge all electric moves are reduced by 20%.
Lightning Rod: You can absorb ambient Electricity from your environment, lighting bolts and electric attacks. You can hold 3 lightning charges, separate from charges created from Dynamo. You can use your own Electric attacks to charge Lightning rod. Each Lightning charge adds 20% additional damage.
Baton pass: 10% TE, intense 1. Basic
switch with an ally remove all debuffs and switch your buffs to ally.
Iron Defense(Cardinal): 50 TE. Intense 1. Adv.
increases defense and reflex by 20% for 6 seconds. The next attack or spAtk deals 25% less damage.
Flash Cannon: TE 20%, intense 2, advanced.
Channel steel TE through the glimmer and refraction of your metallic body. Launching a blinding, razor thin beam of light to cut through your enemies.
Base Atk 200%, base speed 150%, reduce Opponents speed by 20% regardless of hit. Can use charges from ability, converting it into a electric move
Charge: You briefly turn your body into an electric Generator. You vibrate so fast it’s not even visible to the naked eye. This creates a charge for your abilities and additionally, increases your attack and speed by 10% for 6 seconds.
Thunder bolt: cost = 10%, intense 2, basic.
Shoot a lightning bolt at your enemies.
100% atk, 200% speed, applies static.
Discharge:
You discharge a loud electrical surge from your body, observers have compared the sound to crackling sound of a electric wire whipping around. Requires a an electric charge
100% atk, an additional 50% if you use any number of charges.
If opponent has a static charge they will suffer 25% reduced reflex. If they are paralyzed or flinching this move ignores their reflex or speed stat.
Static wool: vulnerable to fire damage and burn. Take 25% increased damage from fire type attacks. May gain up to 3 charges. Charges may by consumed to increase speed by 20% for the next move. Inflict 1 static, for each electric charge when hit in close combat.
Lightning Terrain.
Stomps a static charges into the soil, causing all electric moves to gain 50% more damage. Does not work on airborne
Spark: Electric currents instantly ionize the air and soil around you allowing you to travel at superior speeds while remaining in the ionized field. This move leaves an ionized trail behind you for one second after leaving the field. Opponent’s stepping on ionized ground accumulate static charges. You will charge both your abilities.
30 by 30 foot Field remains for 5 rounds
increase speed by 100% while on the field
20% electric TE.
Magnetize
Begin to levitate. Increase speed by 50%. requires ambient static to function.
Dragon Pulse
Most Basic Dragon move, this is the stuff we teach babies.(quote from Lance)
atk 150% ignore 25% defense&Reflex.
Carlos had fun training these three, especially the Mareep had gotten along quite well with everyone on his personal team, the issue with Carlos’s current team was that it was a generalist team as far as typing and already had conflicting typings with Gwen and Gawain. So any sort of field control tended to work against his own Pokemon.
His habit of training Pokemon defensively had kicked in full with the magnemite. Surge jumped in when it came to training the Watrell. Carlos felt naked putting a Pokemon with such a low defense stat on the field. The only saving grace in Carlos mind was that the Wattrel was a lightning bolt and dodged like it was nobody’s business.
Finnley was opposite to him, his face tense, tanned as well. Even from here Carlos could see that Finnley had burned the midnight Oil. Both trainers stood silently waiting for the Referee, who had to run through all the rules to finally finish.
”THIS IS A 3v3 BATTLE! BOTH TRAINERS HAVE 2 SWITCHES AND BOTH TRAINERS HAVE 2 USES PER POKEMON FOR SWITCH MOVES such as Baton pass! ARE YOU READY!!??”
Both trainers nodded to the deafening cheers of the crowd. Carlos, a usually reserved man, took a page from Surge’s book, raised his hands to whipp the crowd that put their bets on him into a frenzy when they started the military chant.
”AH HOE! AH HOE!” Surge had insisted he wore Camo cargo pants with Military boots and a tank top, showing off his muscular build. Corey had a lot of fun styling his hair in spikey style . Miya wanted him to wear spiked bracers, he decided on just one Bracer that also served as a Pokeball holder, so at least it was somewhat practical.
Finnley hadn’t spend much time on his appearance, to his credit he didn’t let it get to him. Standing calmly with his team on display, letting the crowd have their moment, before returning them to their balls. They all looked well trained.
Carlos gave him a nod of respect. “To the challenger goes the first move!” He yelled.
The thing
Sturdy: 50% increase to Health and Defense, immune to critical strikes.
Dragon Born: Normal TE is converted to Dragon TE and you gain the Dragon trait. Can Learn any normal and Dragon move. All moves you learn gain your A.U.S bonus.
“Say hello to my little friend! The THING!” His geodude took to the field.
“GEO DUDE!!” The Thing roared its name. It’s disposition had definitely changed. Carlos eyes were glued to the screen in his field of vision. His eyes popped out of their sockets. 1680 HP. “Holy fucking hell. That’s such an insane amount.” He was getting excited.
Carlos nodded. “Mareep! You are UP!”
”MAREeeeeeEP! Hello dears and dearest!”
Finnley: ”SANDSTORM’”
Carlos: ”ELECTRIFY!”
Mareep was a lot faster and zapped the Thing with an odd green purple bolt of electric TE that settled itself into the sandstorm. adding an additional effect.
Neither Pokemon with their high amounts of defense would get hurt by the move. Both both suffered 25 % reduction in speed. Due to duel typing.
”SandRage!” Finnley called out.
“Spark and Electric Terrain!” This caused a massive flinch but even so, the Thing didn’t bother attacking, he was way too slow for that. “Double dance!”
area effects were funny this way, moves of the same type would stack, while moves of opposing types would cancel eachother out. Sandstorm was now electric type, both moves from Mareep supercharged the sandstorm.
It took a bit longer for his Mareep to respond. He had taught his Mareep to launch lightning bolts and dragon pulses like a certain great fighter with a tail from another universe with dragon balls.
“Dragon Pulse!” Mareep stood on her back haunches as she collected Dragon TE between her front hooves and launched it forward. “MaREEEP!
“Baton Pass! Watrell you are up! Aerial Peck!” 42 damage, this caused a momentary flinch but Geodude as slow as he was, didn’t even bother trying to use the fleeting moment.
“Motherfucker, holy shit.” He cussed at himself. Carlos was getting annoyed at this Geodude. Drill peck was supposed to be a wall breaker move. That Dragon Dance was getting problematic.
Double Dance!
“Taunt! Keep it on him! Stay on the defensive!” Carlos Yelled. He had to Force Finnley to give up on a baton switch.
“Dance!” But the Thing decided he needed to throw a few rocks instead, easily avoided by Watrell.
Carlos ground his teeth, Watrell was not a stall Pokemon, so this was a bit of an ad hock fix for that stupid piece of Rock that was in the way.
It took a lot of Geodude’s precious TE, to use rockthrow. He was glad he had trained at least one of the three Pokemon in taunt. It was paying out massive dividends.
Finnley realized this wasn’t working, he Needed his Geodude’s TE to last and this was draining it.
Carlos was happy that at the very least he had stopped the sweep setup.
Last thing he needed was for Finnley to get it going, that would end in a big sweep. His Charmander with a fully stacked dragon dance would spell doom for him.
Finnley used one of his returns.
“Good job Thing! Matey! You are up!” On came his Swablu! With an eyepatch. “Baby doll eyes!”
”Taunt, shock, slack. Bolt Beak galvanized!”
Watrell was a lot faster and already in full flight and got his taunt of way before Swablu. Who instead used Aerial Ace.
The two birds came in hot. Clashing into each other.
Watrell due to the effects of slacken didnt flinch from the aerial Ace and grazed Swablu with his two wings coated in potent static electricity. They barely hurt but that wasn’t the point. The massive Static charge immediately paralyzed Swablu mid flight, causing him to lose all the benefits from his flying trait and began to glide towards the surface. Watrell made a sharp turn carried by its earlier momentum, drove its beak hardened into a razor sharp point straight into Swablu’s back. Watrell mercifully didn’t aim at the spine but at its shoulder blade. Still a sickening crack could be heard throughout the Arena. As Swablu crashed into the surface. Kicking up a cloud of dust.
“And a Brutal Take Down of SWABLU! LaDIES and GENTLEman! When is the last time you have seen anything so RuThless!”
The commentator was having a field day calling out the details as the screens showed a slowmotion reel of the exchange.
The crowd was going wild.
A small intermission was added, so the medical team could Rush Swablu to the emergency room. Watrell was huffing, hurt and Carlos needed him for that godforsaken Geodude. Carlos had underestimated how ridiculous that thing was. “The thing indeed.” He muttered.
”Watrell return. Magnemite take the stage!”
He decided to Give Finnley this at least, while they waited. The nurse on call came out and gave the all clear on Swablu’s condition.
“Double defense!” Carlos called out immediately as soon as the match continued.
Another one of those tempting Pokemon for him. He really liked steel types and their ludicrous defense stat.
”crimson you are Up! show them what you’re made off. Dragon dance! Into Incinerate!
The collum of fire washed over the electric ball of steel and didn’t even cause him to take notice. If anything his shine was more pronounced. “What!?” Finnley yelled.
Carlos called out. “Tripple Charge!” Here it was, the move Magnemite had managed to master for chaining. Finnley’s morale fell after that double psychological blow it was obvious, even from this distance.
The crowds reaction was deafening.
Carlos didn’t get to savor the praise from the Commentator as Finnley called out its next command.
”Aerial dance to dodge!” Finnley called.
His crimson most certainly had a strong sense of flair, each Pokemon usually had minute differences when it came to moves but not crimson. 2 blue flame wings of pure TE manifested on his back. He growled as he dropped to all fours like the apex predator he was destined to be. Wind and dragon TE crackled around him as he Shot forward instantly breaking the sound barrier, one mighty flap with his wings and he danced through the Air. Roaring his name.
Full Thunderbolt! Carlos called out. Magnemite Jammed as much TE and electric charges into the Bolt as possible.
”aerial dance again, then dodge!”
Carlos sighed this was the end for Finnley’s Crimson.
”triple charge!” He called, he wondered what Finnley was planning.
“Crimson! Aerial ace into Fire Spin!” Finnley called out.
“OH FUCK!” Carlos roared.
An absurd amount of Fire TE came pouring out of Crimson, as the flame on its tail burst into an intense height and heat. His TE wings white hot and smoldering. Crimson shot forward. Spinning through the air igniting the Oxygen around him, creating a massive fireball that launched at Magnemite.
Although he was technically doing it wrong it didn’t matter, Magnemite was doomed.
Carlos had not seen that coming. Fire Spin was a move Charmeleon’s learned.
“Switch!” But it was too late, the heat was too intense. flames got fanned tremendously quick and although the flinching was so bad it hurt the charmander, the columnn of fire created by his impact and subsequent explosion, was so intense that within the split second for Carlos to return Magnemite, it had already fainted from the heat saturated with fire TE.
The crowds reaction was one of complete Silence. Until the side rooting for Finnley began to howl their approval.
”Watrell Aerial beak!” He yelled as he tossed Magnemite’s Pokeball to a trainer on call for medical assistance.
Carlos had switched gears instantly, technically his magnemite would not have died from that fire spin but he wasn’t taking any chances, Magnemite had already been low on TE.
Charmander already painfully flinching from move overuse and the back fire from using a move not recommended for a first evolution Pokemon, had no chance.
Watrell took to the stage and shot forward like a lightning bolt to finish off Crimson but Finnley recalled and withdrew His Crimson from the fight. Not wanting him to get injured.
The Thing took the stage and Finnley was down to his last Pokemon.
what happpened next was a slow drain of Tiring the Thing out of TE. Lasting several rounds of Watrell dodging rocks easily and keeping up taunt. It was a bit of an anticlimactic end and the bet was already called.
Whether it was Watrell or his Mareep, it was a question of who ran out of TE first which was the thing. After throwing numerous rocks and Watrell almost falling asleep trying to dodge them. An exhausted Geodude slumped down and Carlos was hailed the winner, due to a technical knockout.
Finnley slumped and walked accross the ripped up and glassed field, many places still smoldering and he had to sidestep gooey rock, A testament to the insane power his team had.
Carlos shook his hand and the referee raised both their hands to the thunderous applause of the Crowd. Both sides of the field cheered them on. It had been a tense fight.
Although Carlos won, he felt a bit sad for the Mareep. Obviously she had done well but all things considered, if he was going to use this team for the 4th badge and up, he would need to do some fine tuning. Initially he had planned on using mareep as a setup for Magnemite as a sort of wallbreaker with static charges on the field, to whittle down Geodude. But he had underestimated Dragon dance and with all the preparation, still managed to underestimate the Geodude and Charmander.
Both were ushered off the field towards the press conference.
and entertainment that nobody cared about was brought on the field.
”Holy hell Finnley that team of yours was scary as hell.”
Carlos said as they walked through the hallway leading them to where a bunch of eager journalists were dying to rip them apart publicly.
”Yea right, I didn’t think I would lose this hard. I only managed to down one of your Pokemon. Pokemon you only had for a month.”
”I had lots of help from people.” He pointed out.
”So did I.” Finnley muttered.
“Wana know how you could have swept my entire team?” Carlos offered, he was still a gym trainer.
”How?” Finnley asked.
”Safeguard.” Carlos responded.
Finnley thought about it for a moment.
“Yea I see what you mean.” That would have allowed me to set up my sweep properly.
Carlos kept going, losing was hard for trainers, especially when your Pokemon got hurt so badly.
“Besides don’t beat yourself up, you effectively disabled my Mareep, I had planned on whittling down your Geodude with it but she doesn’t know any disable moves. So she would have lost that slug match. To top it all off. Your Charmander might be one of the scariest Pokemon I’ve seen at this level. My Magnemite wasn’t even hit yet and the heat and Fire TE had knocked him out. High chance that was above a triple overkill.”
That perked Finnley up a bit. “You think so?” They walked into the conference room with a bunch of cameras already making nice shots.
”I basically know so kid.” He smirked, “seen it often enough, that I can guess pretty accurately.”
They both sat down. To their side was a Panel. Oak, Giovanni, Lance and Surge. In front of them the hungry Mightyena’s and Houndooms. Calling themselves Journalists.
“Oh boy this is going to be interesting.” Carlos thought.
